Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

The Mangler Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson December 23, 2018

The Mangler is one of the more overlooked Stephen King adaptations, a surprising reputation since its director and star are two of the giants in horror cinema. It also featured a pretty elaborate marketing campaign by of one the leading distributors (New Line) in the genre. So why did The Mangler suffer a quick death at the box office ($1.7 million)? For one, New Line wasn't able to get it into more than 800 theaters. Another is that it's based on a relatively unknown short story of the same name. According to co-screenwriter Stephen David Brooks on a new commentary, the rights to King's 1978 anthology Night Shift (in which The Mangler is one of twenty horror tales) belonged to the producers of The Lawnmower Man. Director Tobe Hooper has always worked with extremely tight budgets and had one on The Mangler after his producers acquired the rights to the short story. Filming took place in South Africa during August 1994, which occurred shortly after Mandela's election as ANC President. Brooks recounts that he and his fellow filmmakers benefited from the lifting of the economic embargo, which enabled them to procure the Kodak camera equipment they needed. Robert Englund was available for about two weeks so Hooper and his crew filmed their star's scenes separately from the other actors.

The Mangler is set principally in a nineteenth-century built service building known as the Blue Ribbon Laundry, which has historically brought in a good deal of money for the local economy in Rikers Valley, Maine. But the nearly all female crew is subject to unspeakably poor working conditions due to the antiquated and extremely hazardous machinery. William Gartley (Robert Englund) is the crotchety owner and despot of Blue Ribbon. He suffered a nearly fatal accident once while using the Hadley Watson Model No. 6, a humongous steam ironer and speed folder, and lumbers around with large metallic leg braces. He sometimes delegates his orders to foreman George Stanner (Demetre Phillips), who barks them to the ladies. Gartley's niece, Sherry Ouelette (Vanessa Pike), inadvertently cuts her hand on a lever connected to the Mangler while movers get in her way while carrying an old ice box. Sherry's friend and co-worker, Mrs. Frawley (Vera Blacker), accidentally drops her antacid tablets on the revolving tread and while sticking her hand in to retrieve them, she gets sucked underneath the compressor. Detective John Hunton (Ted Levine) arrives on the scene and wants to speak to Gartley about the incident but Stanner claims he's unavailable. Hunton's brother-in-law and next-door neighbor Mark Jackson (Daniel Matmore), an aspiring parapsychologist, believes that the series of deaths caused by the Mangler are not accidents but acts of possession involving human sacrifice, presumably sixteen-year-old virgins. The old Picture Man (Jeremy Crutchley), a police photographer straight out of 1940s private eye pulp novels, has documented the Mangler's grisly history. Hunton and Jackson fear that Gartley's innocent niece, Sherry, may be the steam ironer's next victim as her birthday approaches.

Although The Mangler has a backstory, its plot is thin, causing Hooper to ratchet the gore and use of early CGI. That didn't sit well with several critics. Rene Rodriguez of The Miami Herald called it "one of the worst movies we've seen in years....The Mangler is so bad the projector died at one point during our screening of the film, and the audience took it as a sign that the film was over and fled the theater in a hurry." Other reviewers didn't approve of the writers' adaptation of King's story. However, this was the first project that King was able to grant script approval and he did! There was a small group of critics who admired Hooper's efforts. Betsy Sherman of the Boston Globe stated The Mangler "has sick humor in the vein of Hooper's underappreciated Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2." The film works thanks to how well Ted Levine and Daniel Matmor play off the other (they're really opposites). And an inspired Englund has a lot of fun in one of his finest non-Freddy roles.

The Mangler Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory brings The Mangler to Blu-ray for the first time on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. Hooper's eleventh feature appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, mimicking its original theatrical exhibition. Originally, Scream announced that the unrated version would receive a 4K restoration but the screener I received is a 2K scan of the original camera negative. The first reel inside the Blue Ribbon Laundry boasts a thick texture and coarse grain. The grain isn't as pronounced for the remainder of the film but thankfully, remains intact. Skin tones appear natural and look consistent throughout. The brighter colors are nicely rendered. In Screenshot #20, check out the beautiful matte painting by Paul Lasaine depicting the city entrance and tombstones in the background. Stephen Brooks, who also served as the second unit director, commends the color timer that Scream hired for this transfer. There are a few very small smudges but this is an excellent transfer. Scream has encoded the main feature at an average bitrate of 32000 kbps. My video score is 4.75.

The 106-minute movie comes with a dozen chapter breaks.

The Mangler Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (2562 kbps, 24-bit) and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (1770 kbps, 24-bit). I listened primarily to the lossless 5.1 mix, which provides a very good ambience of the gears churning on the Mangler as well as special effects such as in screen capture #5. Spoken words are relatively clear but occasionally sound intentionally garbled by the Det. Hunton character. Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer observed about Ted Levine's dialogue: "the actor's slurred, groany speech patterns are less ominous than simply unintelligible. (He sounds like a drunk mumbling in a cave.)" I'd have to concur and you may want to turn on the optional English SDH. For the first 10-15 minutes of Barrington Pheloung's score, I thought the music sounded like it was accompanying a direct-to-video, low B-grade horror. But then he introduced more traditional symphonic sounds, with the woodwinds and strings sounding lovely.

The Mangler Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary by Co-Writer Stephen David Brooks - Brooks sits down for a feature-length chat with film critic Nathaniel Thompson, the editor of Mono Digital. Thompson has a number of questions prepared but doesn't have as much to say about this film as he's had for other commentaries he's done. Brooks has quite a few nuggets to pitch in about The Mangler's production. Sometimes while in the middle of answering one of Thompson's queries, he'll notice a detail in a shot that will trigger his memory. Occasionally, the two just describe what's occurring on screen. An above-average but not great discussion. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Gartley's Gambit with Robert Englund (22:40, 1080p) - Englund describes The Mangler as a terrific little Stephen King project. He discusses how Hooper initially wanted to shoot the film in Toronto but was forced to relocate it all the way to South Africa. Englund drew inspiration from Bill Gartley not from the screenplay but King's short story. He's very proud of his work on the film. In English, not subtitled.

• Behind-the-Scenes Footage (12:42, upscaled to 1080i) - a dozen minutes of B-roll footage of cast and crew at work on the set. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:26, 1080p) - a relatively short trailer for The Mangler that New Line launched in early 1995.

• TV Spot (0:33, upscaled to 1080i) - one TV spot that ran on network TV.

The Mangler Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Mangler doesn't have much of a story but is buoyed by a deliciously sinister performance by Robert Englund. If you owned any of the German mediabooks released by NSM Records, you'll want to upgrade to see this nearly flawless presentation (although NSM does include the R-rated version, albeit in open matte 1.33:1.) Extras also heavily favor the Scream Factory package. The Mangler isn't one of Hooper's best films but it definitely bears his imprint. Fans of Englund, King, and Hooper should add it to their collections.